Geneva Academy

General Philosophy of Education

The chief end of man is to worship and glorify God, and in doing this, enjoy Him forever. We worship, glorify and enjoy him by hearing and keeping the great commandments: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Because all education is religious, and all education is training for worship of one god or another (i.e., money, status, self, Yahweh), Geneva Academy seeks to self-consciously educate students toward the right worship of the true God, true disciples of Christ. This worship is worship with heart, hands, mind, feet and tongues; and the corporate worship of God’s people is at the center. We need training in order to do this well.

Geneva Academy aims at assisting parents and the church in training and maturing such worshippers of God. Right worship will bring about, through the blessing of God and the work of His Spirit, the sure growth of Christ’s Kingdom.

The particular means used to accomplish the goal of teaching “worshipping man”(homo adorans) can best be historically described as a Reformational classicism. The Reformers knew the classics of the ancient and medieval world, their languages, philosophies, theologies and religions. They also knew their contemporaries and interacted effectively. They began with a solid biblical foundation in order to view the world rightly.

Likewise, we begin with God’s Word and His way of thinking in order to rightly view the ideas of all the ages, learn from them, and then live faithfully. We hope to train young men and women how to think and what to think, but ultimately, it is our goal that our students live the truth – a cruciform life of service to God and to others.

The Trivium

We believe that the “classical” trivium is the best methodology for schooling. As first formulated by Cassiodorus, and as later revived and explained by Dorothy Sayers, the trivium seeks to teach toward the strengths of the child. The grammar, logic, and rhetoric of the trivium are the “three ways” in which the student is taught.

The grammar stage (K-6) emphasizes the facts to be known.

The logic stage (7-9) concentrates on the way those facts relate to one another.

The rhetoric stage (10-12) develops the winsome presentation of those facts.

We believe in continual reformation toward the image of God and are always seeking new insights into biblical methods of teaching.